This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

After years of debate, supervised injection sites get the green light in Toronto

The federal government has given the official go-ahead for three planned supervised injection sites in Toronto, the final step in a process that took years to unfold.

And the provincial government announced Friday that promised funding for both renovations and operations totaling $3.5 million will now flow to the existing community health centres on Queen East, at Yonge-Dundas and on Queen West, meaning construction can begin and the sites will be on track to open later this year.

Councillor Joe Cressy: “This is 10 years in the making. And it’s the culmination of work by harm-reduction workers, health professionals and people across Toronto who have been trying to save lives,” said Cressy. (Nick Kozak / for Toronto Star file photo)

“This is 10 years in the making. And it’s the culmination of work by harm-reduction workers, health professionals and people across Toronto who have been trying to save lives,” said Joe Cressy, the downtown rookie councilor who chairs the city’s drug strategy implementation panel and has led that push at city hall this term.

“We’re overjoyed that these life-saving services will soon be open in Toronto.”

The funding announced Friday was more than the sum initially requested by the city and would cover increased annual operating costs and one-time renovations originally estimated at $350,000, but which increased after design work.

Article Continued Below

Told of the news, Madison McNeil breathed a sigh of relief.

Her sister, Brooklyn McNeil, died of an overdose in a Toronto alley just shy of her 23rd birthday last summer.

McNeil, a peer worker who helped others with addictions, had spent months advocating for supervised injection services and spoke memorably to councillors at city hall, shortly before her death, to urge them to back the harm-reduction program.

“That’s awesome. It should have happened a year ago,” McNeil said by phone from Thunder Bay. Her sister, she said, had hoped to, one day, work at the sites.

“If those supervised injection sites had been around a year ago, she would still be here . . . . She had dreams and she was hoping for them to be approved so she would be so happy today.”

Her mother, Thia Massaro, said the announcements Friday made the sites a reality after so much talking.

“It’s not words anymore. It’s concrete. It’s going to happen.”

Article Continued Below

For those still working on the ground, the news could not be more welcome.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with the announcement,” said Angela Robertson, executive director at one of the three sites at Queen West Central Toronto Community Health Centre at Bathurst St.

“The provision of supervised injection services integrated into our health services will be, I think, a life saving addition to the clients that we serve.”

Robertson said they, along with the South Riverdale Community Health Centre near Carlaw Ave. and The Works, which is operated by Toronto Public Health, just east of Yonge-Dundas Square, have completed design work for the renovations. If all goes to plan, the sites could be up and running in five months.

Each of the centres plan to open booths within their existing spaces to enable users to bring in their own drugs and inject under the supervision of a nurse, who would watch for signs of infection and overdose.

The opioid crisis has been called an epidemic countrywide by medical professionals, politicians and advocates. Total overdose deaths in Toronto reached an all-time high in 2014, increasing 77 per cent over a decade to 258 deaths. Of those, 131 were opioid-related, according to a new provincial data-tracking site. That number rose again to 137 opioid deaths in 2015. In the first six months of 2016, the number of deaths totaled 91.

Toronto first requested federal permission to open the sites in November. Council had earlier approved the integrated sites in a 36-3 vote with Mayor John Tory’s backing after positive public consultations in the neighbourhoods that would be home to the sites.

The federal rules previously introduced under former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, imposd an onerous approvals process for cities and health providers that wanted such sites. As promised, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government streamlined the process last month.

In February, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott gave the green light to three sites in Montreal.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com